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Jonathan Kay, MessengerGeekIt's a Live thing.
May 17 Save/import of contacts also gone in latest QFE3 update of Messenger 2009Continuing on the topic of features removed from the “minor” QFE3 update to Messenger, the Save and Import of contacts in Messenger has also disappeared in this latest version. Special thanks to my commenter mj who pointed this out. Sure, this feature won’t be missed by many as it has long since been delegated in the hidden menu. However, it was there when it was needed and as a person who has been supporting Messenger for 9 years, I was glad it was there. What does/did this feature do? In what situations would you need this?
Although there’s a tiny long standing bug with this feature and Messenger where the file save dialog refuses to come up (easily fixed with a registry key change), it has been reliable and in existence since the early MSN Messenger days. But on a more positive note, there are other options available to deal with your Windows Live contacts, including exporting to .CSV and importing from other formats/applications. You can head over http://people.live.com, choose the Manage menu and then Export or Import. However, since Messenger, Windows Live and Hotmail contacts are all bunched together, using this can be a bit complicated. More than likely the Messenger export/import feature was removed from Messenger since it exists here, but why this had to removed in what was supposed to be a minor update to Messenger I’m not quite sure. May 13 Messenger 2009 QFE3 update removes Webcam feature and the I’m (*help) emoticonIf seems this latest “update” to Windows Live Messenger 2009 is in fact a downgrade as the entire webcam feature has been removed as well as the Webcam removal However, in this simple build number increase to Messenger, the webcam feature has completely disappeared. It is not listed in the top menus and clicking the webcam icon next to a display picture just starts a video call.
Not only that, but if someone on a previous build of Windows Live Messenger 2009 attempts to use Webcam with you, they are immediately declined. You do not receive a notification that they even attempted to contact you via webcam! Certainly this could cause some issues among close contacts. I’m emoticon Conclusions Sure, the The absolute worst aspect of this “update” is the complete lack of communication from Microsoft. Sure, there’s been features removed from major versions, and forced upgrades without a single notice, but never before has a major feature [webcam] in Messenger been removed in a so-called minor update. I, for one, am downgrading back to the previous version. May 12 Installing/uninstalling Windows Live 2009 (Wave 3) QFE 3 applicationsThis article supersedes the Installing/uninstalling Windows Live 2009 (Wave 3) QFE 2 applications and the Windows Live Communications Platform update with the third QFE (Quick Fix Engineering) release versions of the Windows Live “Wave 3” 2009 products.
Of note however, is that Windows Live Call and the Windows Live Toolbar has been updated, neither of which has been updated since the original QFE. Additionally, the included Silverlight install is still the previous 3.0 version and not the recently released 4.0. Below you will find all Windows Live Suite 2009 “Wave 3” applications, a download link to the Microsoft Installer (MSI) file, what’s also necessary to install each application and instructions on how to properly remove each without the Windows Live installer. This allows you to install on non-supported Windows versions (Windows XP x64), fix broken Windows Live Installer installs or just to avoid the Live Installer altogether. Note: A few of the packages come in both 32-bit and 64-bit varieties. If you’re not sure if you are using a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system, you most likely have a 32-bit operating system and should use the 32-bit packages. You can verify your operating system type using this article. Windows Live Messenger You can also uninstall Messenger 2009 (even if the above isn't working) by using my ZapMessenger utility Windows Live Mail Windows Live Toolbar Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Movie Maker Windows Live Writer Windows Live Family Safety To uninstall these secondary components, see Secondary Components below. Microsoft Silverlight 3.0 Microsoft Office Live Add-in 1.3 Version: 12.0.6423.1000 Download Installer – olc.msi This is only offered to you in the normal setup if you have Outlook installed. You will also need to install: Microsoft Office Outlook To uninstall Office Outlook Connector, click Start, then Run if using XP, then type/paste the following and press Enter: msiexec /x {95120000-0122-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE}
Choice Guard Windows Live Sign-in Assistant Windows Live Upload Tool Windows Live Essentials Installer Segoe UI Font Secondary Components Microsoft Application Error Reporting Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime Direct3D 9 Windows Live Communications Platform Windows Live Call Windows Live Sync/Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime/Microsoft Sync Framework Services Search Enhancement Pack Junk Mail filter update Windows Imaging Component (XP only) Windows Imaging Component Hotfix SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition April 29 Features cut from the new Windows Live Messenger 2010Yesterday, we got the first official preview videos of the Wave 4 Messenger client. The first video is a quick, amusing walkthrough of some of the new features, so take a look if you haven’t seen it yet. The second was part of Ballmer’s presentation in Sao Paolo; the Messenger demo starts at ~23:05. The great thing about video is that you can look through the menus as they use the product. Note that I’m just making educated guesses at this point, but I’d be willing to bet most of the functionality I mention here has been given the snip. 1. Webcam For those unfamiliar, Webcam has its own set of functionality that Video Call does not have, including the ability to show your webcam to multiple people which allowed for multi-person video sharing, something popular Skype doesn’t even have (although if you wanted multi-person audio, you’d still have to use another product). One of the great uses of Webcam is to quickly show something to another person without forcing them to transmit their own audio/video, thereby saving time, bandwidth costs, and having to check that your hair is still in place.
Earlier this year I did a small experiment involving setting up an automated chat bot with webcam support on Messenger and letting it lose on a random public web chat to talk to people. Of 108 requests, all were webcam requests except for two users who attempted a video call. As it’s unlikely that people will immediately upgrade, I do hope backwards compatibility has or will be implemented for that.
However it seems to be missing from the interface in all videos and screenshots of 2010, thus I can only summarize that it’s been cut out of the product. Unlike Webcam, which at least still has its core functionality retained in Video Call, there is no replacement for Drawing so you’re left to draw in an image editor and paste them over. It’s a real shame considering Messenger has had this functionality back to the days of Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger with Netmeeting’s Whiteboard.
3. Backgrounds Message History? File transfer? Conclusions The real problem with removing features in Messenger is as people upgrade (or are forced to upgrade), the feature’s stop working as their version no longer supports it – even though you’ve continued to stay on the existing version. So given time, the feature is simply gone, regardless if your client supports it or not. More on other interesting things in the video in the coming days. March 23 Messenger servers showing contacts as offlineUPDATE (March 23/2010 2:42 PM GMT-4): It does appear that the servers are slowly returning to normal. Although not fully fixed for everyone, gradually contacts are showing up online again.
This isn’t a new problem either. Messenger has continually had these problems on and off for several months now. If you use the Messenger web-based client within Hotmail, or clients which use the older protocol versions (like Windows Messenger on XP), you may get slightly better results, however for the most part there isn’t a lot you can do about it except wait for it to be corrected. November 26 Update to the Windows Live Communications PlatformWith the recent final forced upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009 from Windows Live Messenger 8.5 came an updated version of the Windows Live Communications Platform which hadn’t seen a change since February (the original QFE release). The existing version of the Windows Live Communications Platform contained a bug wherein in some cases, the contact list would appear empty within the various Windows Live applications (most obvious in Messenger and Mail). This bug appears to have been corrected in this release and presumably the forced upgrade was delayed for 8.5 until this fix was ready. As this is a small update to the existing QFE 2 suite, I’ve elected to simply update the QFE 2 entry with this small update. Upgrading from the existing Windows Live Communications Platform version
Technical Details Files updated (check your version/files in your Program Files’ Windows Live\Contacts folder):
September 14 Messenger server problems today
This is most likely due to changes being made for tomorrow’s (Sept. 15th) forced upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009. I would expect it to be resolved by tomorrow. If you’re not aware of the forced upgrade, as of tomorrow if you’re using Windows Live Messenger 8.x, you will be forced to update to the 2009 version to sign in to Messenger. This is due to a security issue found in the Microsoft’s ATL library, which is only fixed in the latest version of Messenger. The MessengerSays blog has the full announcement. As well, this forced upgrade has already been shaky, with workarounds required for some versions of Windows which aren’t officially “supported”. You can upgrade Messenger at the Windows Live download site, or install the MSI files yourself here on my blog. It really would be preferred if a version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 (2008) was made available with the ATL security fix. 2009 is hardly a bug-free release, and downgrading has been a legitimate “fix” for everything from missing contacts to performance problems. Sadly, I doubt this will happen for the typical time, resources, and money problems. |
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